


You're So Weak, Dream

by amooniesong



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Dream and Techno just being buds, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Insecurity, Light Angst, One Shot, Spoilers for 4 v 1 Manhunt Rematch, patches - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:53:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27125474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amooniesong/pseuds/amooniesong
Summary: Dream was a confident person. He was happy, he had good friends, he was good at what he did and had built a large following online. There went plenty of brilliant things about him: perhaps not the most modest of statements he could have thought, but one he believed to be true. He was thick-skinned and took insults in his stride - they all came as part of the package that being a public figure presented. On most occasions the insults were easy to ignore, nothing more than water off a duck’s back, but this one he just couldn’t shake.--------------------spoilers for the 4 v 1 manhunt rematch!
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Dave | Technoblade
Comments: 19
Kudos: 390





	You're So Weak, Dream

Dream was a confident person. He was happy, he had good friends, he was good at what he did and had built a large following online. There went plenty of brilliant things about him: perhaps not the most  _ modest  _ of statements he could have thought, but one he believed to be true. He was thick-skinned and took insults in his stride - they all came as part of the package that being a public figure presented. On most occasions the insults were easy to ignore, nothing more than water off a duck’s back, but this one he just  _ couldn’t  _ shake.

_ You’re so weak, Dream _ .

He knew why he couldn’t shake it - because it wasn’t said by a fan, or a commenter, or someone whose opinion meant relatively little to him, it was said by his best friend.

It wasn’t as if there was any malice meant by the words that were spoken. They were uttered during a recording and Sapnap had simply been playing his part as a hunter (overconfident, cocky, and a comedian) but even now, hours after the video had been published, they still seemed to echo in his mind.

_ You’re so weak, Dream. _

And who was he to argue? He built himself up so much but at the end of the day, weren’t those words true? His online persona was built on strength - his intellect and his combat abilities, his competitive nature - but in reality there were so many layers he put in place to keep himself hidden from the public eye. Over eleven million people subscribed to him on YouTube and only a handful of his friends knew what he looked like - even George’s eyes had never cast a glance over his face. How could he give off such an aura of strength and confidence when he was too much of a coward to even allow George to look at him? 

Worse than that - what if people began to realise that what Sapnap said was true? What if they took those words and ran with them? What if they pulled apart his personality piece by piece and analysed every tweet, every joke, everything he’d ever done publicly and put together just how much of a coward he was? 

_ He was so weak. _

He’d seen messages from fans, from his friends, and yet another hashtag was trending, but he was too afraid to face them all with that knowledge eating away at him. He was weak, so  _ terribly  _ weak, and even the quiet meowing of his companion wasn’t enough to pull him mind from the spiralling thoughts it was sent on following.

Instead, all he had the strength to do was move over to his bed and close his eyes. Patches could tell that something was wrong, nuzzling her head against his and purring softly to try and get his attention. When he didn’t move, she curled up and rested her chin on his forehead. As he began to drift into a much needed sleep he moved a hand to rest on her back, softly stroking her with small, subtle movements of his thumb. 

At some point after he’d fallen unconscious Patches left his side to find a sunny spot in the living room of his apartment to snooze in, and that left him vulnerable. He’d never vocally admit just how much comfort she brought him but without her presence as he slept his mind turned against him, the memory of those words still so fresh and so painful driving nightmares to plague his sleep. He tossed and turned, his body tangling between his sheets and a thin layer of sweat began to form on his forehead. He let out quiet whimpers, his body calling out for help even though he lived alone.

If he’d been awake - or at least conscious of his thoughts - he might have chastised himself for being weak again.

When he fell out of his bed, shocking himself awake and gasping for air the moment his eyes snapped open, he certainly felt weak.

It was just a game, they’d just been making a video, it had been nothing more than  _ words _ . He shouldn’t be letting it get to him and yet as he sat on his bedroom floor, with his blankets wrapped around his legs and twisted around his arms, his hair disheveled and his forehead slick, he felt nothing other than  _ weakness _ . 

Dream spent a good deal of time getting his breath back, fighting back a wave of nausea and anxiety that seemed to hit him all at once. He knew at some point he needed to get up, to check his notifications and reply to his friends, but in reality that was the last thing he wanted to do. He worried that if the fans had caught on to his weakness in the time that he’d been asleep they may have done the same, and he’d save that pain for later.

Instead, he got to his feet and padded quietly around his apartment. He put out some fresh food and water for Patches (her little bell ringing indicating that she’d noticed and was heading over quickly), poured a glass of cold water for himself and popped two slices of bread into the toaster. His worries had taken away his appetite but he knew he ought to eat something, so toast would do. He didn’t bother to add any butter to it, crunching on it dry and studying Patches as she ate. She didn’t mind being watched - clearly enjoying the attention - but she didn’t hang around for long once she’d finished. Rather than return to her sunny perch she elected to poke her head into Dream’s bedroom and Dream smiled to himself for a brief moment. At least no matter what his friends thought of him, Patches would always be there. She was smart, but he didn’t think she was smart enough to tell the difference between a weak Human and a strong Human - she would stay with him regardless of his glaring flaws.

He waited a few minutes - still hoping to delay the inevitable - before taking one last sip of his water and returning to his bedroom. He could, theoretically, continue to put off picking up his phone, but that would do little more than reinforce the point to his friends. If he couldn’t even face their messages, that told them all they needed to know about how weak he was. 

“Patches, c’mon.” Dream said, calling for her from the doorway. She was standing on his desk - clearly having made her way up using his chair - and he’d rather not have her tweeting for him. 

Except instead of tweeting, when she dismounted his desk she managed to start a call.

Dream groaned quietly to himself as Patches trotted towards him, moving to his desk to apologise and hang up on whoever had been called. He sat in his chair as he always did, placing his headphones on his head like normal, and glanced at the screen. The number of notifications from his friends, servers, and various group chats felt overwhelming, so when he heard a familiar voice through his ears he reconsidered his initial plan.

“Dream?”

Technoblade’s voice was somewhat tired, although that seemed to be a given. Dream didn’t worry that Patches’ call had awoken him - more likely she’d disturbed him from whatever farm he was working on - and instead he smiled a little. If there was one person in the world that hadn’t seen the Manhunt video, it would be the Potato King himself.

“Hi Techno.” He said, putting his head in his hands and yawning into his palms. “How’re you?”

“I’m good… Should I be concerned that you’re calling without an appointment?”

“I don’t think so.” Even to Dream, that didn’t sound entirely convincing. “I’m not streaming.”

“I know.” A beat, and then. “How did the video go?”

“I haven’t looked.” Dream said honestly. If he’d lost all of his other friends to this, if his subscribers had abandoned him en masse, maybe Technoblade would be the one person in the world he  _ could  _ talk to. “I would assume awfully.”

“Didn’t get five million views in the first twelve hours?” Technoblade asked, chuckling to himself quietly. When Dream didn’t reply there was another moment of silence. “Why would it have gone awfully?”

Dream sat back in his chair, taking in a breath and letting his gaze fall to his fingers. His thumbs twiddled with the drawstrings of his sweatpants, resting in his lap as he tried to keep himself together. Technoblade might be the last person he could still talk to, but he didn’t want to ridicule himself in front of the man. He might have more subscribers (unless people really  _ had  _ left en masse), but he still respected and looked up to his remaining friend.

“There was a moment when I could have lost, I  _ should  _ have lost, there shouldn’t have been a way out for me. They all had prot four, I shouldn’t have been able to get out of that. They were all following me and…”

_ You’re so weak, Dream. _

“And what?” Technoblade asked, encouraging Dream to go on with his explanation when his words seemed to dry up.

“They were all so strong, I was so weak.” He muttered. “I was so,  _ so  _ weak. I  _ am  _ weak. I didn’t want them to figure it out but hearing someone say it aloud felt like they’d poked a hole in my armour. It was like for the first time I thought they could see the real me. It was like they weren’t talking about the game, but about me. And it’s been hours, everyone will have caught on to who I really am by now.”

“Dream, I’m going to say this because I am your friend.” Technoblade began. “I have absolutely no idea how to deal with a situation like that. I understand the fear, but I don’t know how to fix it. If I did, I wouldn’t be putting on a mask whenever I recorded a video or streamed. I don’t know if it helps at all, but there’s plenty of weak YouTubers out there that put on a persona for their audience. The people watching don’t mind, so long as you’re still funny. That doesn’t address the core issue, but I’m not about to psycho-analyse you free of charge.”

Dream laughed a little at that, a small smile returning to his face. 

“I don’t think you’re weak, but I only get to see the part of you that you put out there. Maybe you are, maybe you’re not, but it would be kinda cringe for them to stop being your friends or your fans because you had a moment of weakness.”

“Thanks, Techno.” Dream said. “That helps, even if it’s not a full on therapy session.”

“I’m not allowed to help for free either, you’ll have to pay me in clout or potatoes.” 

“Are you on the smp?”

“I was hoping you’d pay me in clout…”

“I’m not ready for Twitter just yet.” Dream admitted. Maybe he was still having that moment of weakness, maybe it would linger for a little while longer, but Technoblade was right. A moment of weakness wasn’t going to be enough for his worst fears to come true, and when he eventually checked his Twitter and Discord notifications he would see that his worries had been for nothing.

No one thought he was weak. And even if he was, things would still turn out okay.

**Author's Note:**

> in my discord server i wrote "you're so weak dream - WRITE THAT DOWN WRITE THAT DOWN" then procrastinated for 11 hours, but it's been written down now :D hope you enjoyed a little bit of (PLATONIC - don't be weird) dream & techno. just a neat little one-shot for you all! 
> 
> as always, feel free to comment below, let me know if you want to join my discord server & i can send an invite, & find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/amooniesong) if you want to know when i post stuff :)


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